He was forced to abandon his house after disruption of social harmony during the first movement and the announcement of fresh round has spoiled his dream of returning home with his son and daughter-in-law.
“Dad didn´t want to leave home at that time. He only came here on our insistence as the situation worsened,” says Pran Nath´s 56-year-old son Ram Prasad.
Ram Prasad feels that infiltrators will try to disrupt communal harmony in the name of the movement. “We fear infiltration more than the movement,” Ram Prasad says and urges the agitating party to be vigilant of such elements.
Ram Prasad hopes to fulfill his father´s wish and he himself wants to return home. But increasing politicization of the Tarai and deteriorating environment have made him hesitant. “I am a man born in Madhes. But there is not an environment where I can live as a Madhesi,” Ram Prasad rues.
Ram Prasad reveals several gentlemen of the Madhesi community there have invited him to return but he is reluctant after the announcement of fresh movement. “Majority of the people living in the Madhes are trying to foster communal harmony. But the elements trying to disrupt the harmony by giving political colors to the situation have become dominant,” Ram Prasad says.
Ram Prasad is still hopeful and wishes to return home some day. This is not an isolated case. Many families of hilly origin have taken refuge in Hetauda due to increasing crime and deteriorating harmony in the Tarai.
“We have come here from Gaur, Rautahat, last year after we couldn´t stay there where we have lived for four-five generations,” says Kush Raj Adhikari who has been living in Hetauda-4.
The Adhikaris also want to return home but like the Pokharels they do not see it happening anytime soon. He says many more from Gaur and the surrounding have taken shelter in Hetauda.
Bishnu Koirala, displaced from Birgunj, also has similar story to tell. “Nobody came to ask me to leave. But I left after seeing the plight of others,” Koirala reveals.
The influx of displaced people has even resulted in the change of name of places. Many have started to call such communities with high number of defectors “Bhagauda Tole” (community of fugitives).
But most of the displaced persons don´t like being called fugitives. “We have not absconded. We were forced to leave as the state couldn´t provide security to us,” argues Durga Phuyal, who has come from Kanpur, Rautahat.
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